JEDDAH, 12 January 2007 — The details that have surfaced this week about the alleged $2 million payoff that former Manila Rep. Mark Jimenez paid to former Justice Secretary Hernando “Nani” Perez (and others) to fast track approval of the Argentine firm IMPSA’s contract in 2001 to build a power plant in the Philippines and also be granted sovereign immunity, are absolutely amazing.
These sordid details of rank corruption in the Arroyo administration came to light only this week because Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez filed charges of extortion, graft and falsification of public documents against Perez, which are all bailable offenses, unlike plunder.
As the opposition press has been quick to point out, why was former President Joseph Estrada charged with plunder only four months after he was overthrown in the Edsa II protest in February 2001, while the charges against Perez took nearly six years to prosper? (Plus there is the fact that Estrada has not been convicted of any corruption charges yet, but that’s a whole other column in itself.)
Sen. Panfilo Lacson and former Solicitor General Francisco Chavez both have copies of a handwritten note from Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales instructing the Department of Justice to hold on to certain documents needed to prove that Perez had deposited ill-gained money in Swiss and Hong Kong bank accounts “unless extremely neces-sary.”
Gonzales is now saying that he wrote that note on the documents because he was still new in his job as DoJ chief in 2002 and wasn’t well acquainted with the case. I and many others find that excuse very hard to swallow.
Now Jimenez, who was convicted of tax evasion in the US and served time in an American jail for that, is spinning his story like mad, claiming that Perez extorted the $2 million out of him in order not to compel him to testify against his former friend President Estrada. Not only that, but Jimenez went several times to Malacañang Palace to talk with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and has since come out to declare that President Arroyo had nothing to do with the $2 million bribe! And we are supposed to believe all of this nonsense?
Commentators are now saying that the $2 million bribe paid by IMPSA through Jimenez was in fact much larger, and may have been as much as $14 million! That leads logically to the question of who else benefited from this huge bribe? Certainly not only Perez. Some have suggested that President Arroyo may have pocketed some of this loot, and from the timing of all of this, that is how this looks like now.
According to Sen. Loi Estrada, President Estrada was offered the bribe to approve the IMPSA deal while he was still in power, but declined to do so as he did not want to give the firm sovereign guarantee. If Estrada had granted IMPSA sovereign guarantee, that firm could have gone bankrupt in the Philippines and the government would have been stuck with all of its debts and liabilities, and the Philippine taxpayer would have ultimately been handed the bill.
President Arroyo and Perez both approved the IMPSA deal only two days after Edsa II placed her in Malacañang Palace. This haste to approve such a shady and disadvantageous deal should have raised many eyebrows, but Arroyo and her spin masters have been adept at keeping this from the public eye until now.
So why charge Perez now and only on minor offenses that allow him to remain free and possibly flee the country? The upcoming elections in May are a clear reason. The administration has to be seen as being tough on corruption and it seems that they have decided that Perez will be their sacrificial lamb.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. suspects that this is reason, telling the Daily Tribune that: “It seems the administration will make a sacrificial lamb out of former Secretary Perez to show before the nation that they are running after corruption. They want to create the impression that they are not tolerating corruption.”
But even if Perez is made to take the rap for the IMPSA deal, he may still get away with it. Already there is speculation that the Ombudsman Gutierrez (who already has a track record of cracking the whip and then suddenly dropping all charges) could eventually dismiss all the charges, citing lack of evidence, and preferably after the election. That way Arroyo looks like she’s cracking down on corruption, while her best friend Perez gets away with accepting $2 million in bribes. A win-win scenario for the Arroyo administration.
Yet it does not look like the Arroyo administration will get away with it just yet. Already former Solicitor General Francisco Chavez is preparing to file disbarment charges against Justice Secretary Gonzalez and Ombudsman Gutierrez for obstructing justice, withholding key evidence and watering down charges against Perez. According to the Daily Tribune, he is also going to file criminal and administrative cases against them for allegedly committing acts inimical to public interest in the litigation of corruption charges surrounding the IMPSA deal.
The Arroyo administration and its allies in Congress, it seems, are guilty of dragging their feet in investigating the IMPSA deal, in an attempt at minimizing potential damaging fallout if Perez, his wife and other relatives are indicted and found guilty of accepting the $2 million bribe. Gonzalez sat on key evidence that could have documented the paper trail leading to the $2 million and where it was deposited overseas. As part of its obstruction tactics, administration allies in the Senate refused to approve a mutual assistance treaty with Hong Kong, where Perez allegedly stashed some of his ill-gotten money, because Hong Kong is a part of China. While this is technically correct, Hong Kong is still operating under a separate set of laws than mainland China, and as such the Philippines could and should have signed such a treaty with it.
Arroyo supporters are no doubt going to say that the president did not know anything about the bribery scheme hatched by Jimenez. I find that extremely hard to believe given that Perez was her protégé and the fact that she rushed to sign the IMPSA deal when she had only been president for two days.
The president of a country should always be above any suspicion of corruption and if they do fall into suspicion should do their utmost to dispel such accusations and restore public confidence in the office. Unfortunately, Arroyo seems incapable and indeed unwilling to do just that. Instead Perez and his relatives will be the sacrificial lambs, ones which may not even end up in jail. Meanwhile, Estrada remains locked up six years after being overthrown by Arroyo and has not been found guilty of any charge of corruption yet. Only in the Philippines.
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